World Meat Congress Organizers Lead “Child Hunger Challenge”

Mar 19, 2014

The China Meat Association (CMA) and the International Meat Secretariat (IMS), organizers of the 20th World Meat Congress, are leading a “Child Hunger Challenge” to raise money for child hunger and malnutrition projects in conjunction with this year’s congress, June 14-16, in Beijing. Both CMA and IMS encourage all sectors of the global meat industry to join them in donating to the Child Hunger Challenge. Funds raised will go to The Six-Second Project, a non-profit organization partnering with the meat industry to fund sustainable hunger solutions. Donations to the Child Hunger Challenge can be made by clicking on the “Child Hunger Challenge” banner on the congress website: www.worldmeatcongress2014.com[1].

“As an industry of food production and distribution experts, we must make it our responsibility to fight child hunger,” said Li Shui Long, CMA’s president. “With China playing host to the World Meat Congress, we have the opportunity to bring attention to the alarming fact that one in eight people around the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, and millions of them are children. We must work together as an industry to change this fact, and we recognize the important role the industry can play in both raising money and helping find solutions to this global challenge,” Li noted.

The IMS has officially endorsed The Six-Second Project as a partner in fighting hunger and malnutrition: “We know animal proteins can play a profound role in preventing malnutrition and stunting, especially among children,” said Arturo Llavallol, IMS president. “We encourage IMS members as well as meat companies around the world to join the Child Hunger Challenge and to work with The Six-Second Project to develop meat and livestock-related hunger solutions. The more we improve access to animal proteins, the more suffering we can alleviate,” Llavallol emphasized.

The Six-Second Project, whose name is derived from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) statistic that a child dies of hunger every six seconds, recruits meat industry partners to raise widespread public awareness of the hunger pandemic through point-of-sale campaigns and cause marketing efforts in which partners earmark a portion of sales to fund initiatives that create sustainable food access for those in need. Additional information about The Six-Second Project’s work can be found at http://www.thesixsecondproject.org/our-work[3].

The IMS is a non-profit membership organization that brings together meat and livestock bodies from around the world to exchange ideas and experiences on issues affecting the global meat and livestock sectors.

The CMA is a national non-profit organization approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China to assist the meat industry. The CMA represents the meat producers, meat processors and distributors, meat slaughtering and refrigerating companies, as well as manufacturing & processing machinery companies of the meat industry.